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ACP Leaders on the Road: UAE

Tanveer Mir, MD, MACP
Chair, ACP Board of Regents

The Sheikh Khalifa Medical City is located in Abu Dhabi, the
capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The health care
facilities that comprise SKMC are situated on an island about five
miles wide and nine miles long. Architecturally, Abu Dhabi is an
intriguing city where the domes and minarets of traditional mosques
are surrounded by ultramodern skyscrapers, tree-lined boulevards,
gleaming fountains and parks. The Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
operates under the management and direction of Health Authority -
Abu Dhabi. The Medical City has several 'Centers of Excellence' and
aspires to practice contemporary medicine comparable to the best
hospitals and medical centers. SKMC provides comprehensive health
care services in all of the disciplines relevant to the needs and
priorities of the community. Additionally it has a 500 plus bed
tertiary medical-surgical facility that provides state of the art
Medical care to the residents of Abu Dhabi.

The second annual SKMC Multispecialty Conference was held in
October at the Rosewood Hotel in Abu Dhabi. This was the second
conference held by SKMC and had dual tracks in Pediatrics and
Internal Medicine. This five day conference offered separate
registration for each day of the conference to encourage trainees
from SKMC to attend. The Gulf Chapter joined ACP in 2015 as an
international chapter. This conference received ACP endorsement and
I was happy to attend as an International Ambassador of the ACP and
faculty. The conference was well-organized and covered a wide range
of topics. Cardio-metabolic syndrome was emphasized but sessions
covered most specialties in Internal Medicine with an expert
speaker covering each topic. Since this was a board review course
as well, audience response system was utilized to cover questions
on each topic followed by the core topic. The audio-visual and
facilities arrangements were impeccable with high level of
technical expertise available on site. Four other faculty members
from the United States participated in this conference, and mainly
covered pediatrics topics. I spoke on the topic of 'The Geriatric
Tsunami' during the plenary and a session on MCQ's covering
Geriatric assessment and management. Dr. Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi,
the Conference President, and Dr. Bisher Mustafa hosted a faculty
dinner and this offered additional opportunity to enjoy the Abu
Dhabi hospitality and academic exchange.

During this conference, I had ample time to interact with
residents and faculty in Abu Dhabi. In addition to the local
attendees, some delegates came from Dubai and Saudi Arabia as well.
A significant number of faculty at SKMC are US or Canadian trained
in Internal Medicine and sub-specialties as well. Abu Dhabi does
not have a medical school, but the SKMC sponsors an Internal
Medicine Residency Program. This is an ACGME-I (International)
accredited program, with 15 residents in each year, a total of 45.
After the completion of residency, candidates are eligible for the
Arab Board of Internal Medicine. One of the notable facts was that
almost 60 percent of each class of residents is comprised of women.
The need for CME conferences and Board Review Courses such as this
multi-specialty conference fulfills the needs for the preparation
for the board examination. I was pleasantly surprised to meet two
of my former residents who trained in the United States and were
now serving as key faculty at SKMC. One of them, trained in
cardiology and EPS, discussed the significant number of cases of
Brugada syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in young males and
fascicular Ventricular Tachycardia case clusters in Abu Dhabi.
Since these are rare entities in the medical literature, he was
proposing a genetic basis and hoping for time and support to
further explore and publish his series. The interest in ACP remains
significant and the trainees were generally hoping to complete
fellowships in subspecialties of Internal Medicine. Many of them
are ACP members and the faculty are fellows of the college. The
upcoming combined Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Gulf chapter
meeting in February 2016 was being advertised as well, with keen
interest on the part of the residents and faculty.

Overall this was a short and enjoyable visit and one can hope
that we at ACP can involve and encourage young faculty and
residents to stay engaged with the college in a meaningful way.